Convictions
by Outis aka nobody
Summary: Coming back.
1. Chapter 1

**Ch1: Hello. Once again I am back for another story. This one is going to be a more straightforward than the last one (at least I think the last one was somewhat complex). To be perfectly honest with anyone who is reading this I want to tell you right away that this story is pretty much just a "vehicle" to introduce a new character of mine, but that's not to say that it wont still be a good story! So just have that in mind as you read this. I should mention that there will be a bit of harsh language in this chapter.**

_**I do not own any of the Loonatics Unleashed characters. They belong (as far as I know) to **__**Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. Please be aware of this fact throught the story.**_

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**Convictions**

It was early morning in Acmetropolis: 4pm to be more precise. Very few of the city's residents were awake at this hour; some people were awake and actively performing their duties despite the early hour. Some of the aforementioned people are we shall start.

At the Acmetropolis prison we can see a small shuttle-craft taking off and flying into the air. "Man, I can't believe we got stuck with this job," griped one of the passengers on the shuttle, "we're supposta' be on leave right now, but NO. Obviously this is so much more important!" he said as he slouched forward in his seat.

"That's enough Tyler!" Said one of the other occupants of the shuttle in a stern tone. "You know why we have to be here, so stop complaining. It isn't going to make things any better."

The other man's brief reprimand seemed to have the intended effect. "Yeah, yeah I know." Tyler said as he sat back in the uncomfortably hard and rigid seat of the prison shuttle.

_Finally, _thought a third passenger, _for prison guards these men aren't very disciplined, at least not Officer Tyler. The other one seems a little better. What was his name again? Polk. That was it. Did he mention a first name? I guess it's not that important. _He thought all this as he sat in his own seat, staring at the floor in silence.

Officer Polk got up from his seat, feeling a little restless himself, and headed toward the front of the ship. "How much longer?" he asked the two pilots.

"Not too much longer; about twenty minuets or so. We're only going to the prison station after all." the female pilot replied.

"That's assuming we make it there." her co-pilot added under his breath while arbitrarily fiddling with some buttons and switches on the control console.

"Can it Harrison!" The pilot whispered fiercely to the man next to her. "Ignore him sir. He's just paranoid." She tried to explain.

Polk looked at the two with an expression of both suspicion and irritation. "Listen you two," he said as he leaned in closer to them, "the warden made sure to point out that this mission is very important and that he didn't want anything to go wrong. I don't want him to be disappointed, because if something does go wrong than, as the senior officer, it will be **my** ass on the line. So if you two are expecting any problems I'd like to know about it!" He stared intently at both of them as he waited for an answer.

"No sir. No problems, right Harrison?" she said as she looked over to glare at Harrison.

"Nope. No problems at all." Harrison said while rolling his eyes (an action which was hidden by the tinted visor of his flight helmet).

Polk wasn't entirely convinced, but figured that there probably wasn't much else he could do, _and if it really was anything serios they would tell me_, he thought. So he walked back and sat down in his seat.

When she saw him leave the pilot let out a small sigh. She quickly smacked Harrison in the arm, causing him to recoil slightly. "What were you thinking?" she asked in another harsh whisper.

Harrison shrugged and rubbed his arm. "Calm down McKinley. I don't know why we couldn't just tell him about it. It's like you said, it's nothing…" he said in a timid manner.

"That's why we don't need to tell him, or any of them, about it. They'd just be spooked for no reason. So stop bringing it up!" McKinley retorted sharply.

"Fine then. Whatever you say McKinley." He said as he continued to mess with some of the controls on the dashboard.

_Idiot_, McKinley thought, _there's no reason to bring it up. Everything will be fine_, she firmly asserted to herself.

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"So how much longer?" Tyler asked as he saw Polk sit back down in his seat.

"About twenty minuets." he replied as he sat with his arms crossed over his chest. Tyler simply snorted in response.

_Twenty minuets hmm…might as well use this time to get a little information_, the third passenger thought as he straightened up from his slumped-over position. "So," he spoke for the first time since the start of the assignment. "do you have anymore information on him?" He addressed Officer Polk as he indicated to the fourth passenger on the ship. The man behind the bullet proof glass; wearing the standard bright orange jumpsuit that clearly separated him from the rest of the normal populace; the attire that identified him as a convict.

Polk rubbed his chin as he tried to remember the details he had been given in the short briefing that had taken place the day before. "You remember that bridge collapse from a few months ago?" he asked.

"Of course." he replied. "The others and I were called in to help with the clean up." he continued plainly.

"Right, well this is the guy that was behind it." Polk said. _I'm a little surprised he didn't know that_, he thought.

He did indeed look confused. "I hadn't heard anything about a conviction. When did this happen?"

"Actually I guess the police brought him in on the second or third day after. I heard he was helping people there, carrying around supplies and stuff I guess. Then some cops decided to ask him if he knew anything and he admitted to being behind the whole thing. Of course they didn't really beleave him, but they had to take him in anyway just to make sure."

"Yeah, then the whole thing turned into a big mess." Tyler chimed in, as he had been listening to the conversation the whole time.

"How do you mean?" the third passenger asked, still a little confused about the whole thing.

"The way I heard it was that when they asked the guy for his name he said he didn't have one." Tyler explained. "Everybody thought he was just being a smart ass at first, but, lo and behold, they couldn't find any evidence that the guy actually existed."

"He didn't have any identification on him, he didn't have any finger print or dental records at all, and without a name they couldn't really look for a birth certificate." Polk elaborated as he saw the other passenger was still confused. "As far as 'the system' was concerned he didn't exist."

_I guess that **would **cause some problems_, he thought. "So what do you call him?"

Tyler chuckled a little as Polk answered, "I guess somebody down at the police station got frustrated and told him to just pick a name so they'd have something to put in the files, and he picked Johnny Yuma, but mostly everybody took to calling him St. John, considering he was trying to help his own victims."

"Which is a little ironic considering…" Tyler tried to interject but was quickly cut off.

"There's no need to bring that up Tyler." Polk said in a more austere voice.

Tyler scoffed in response. "I don't see any reason we can't let him know."

"Let me know what?" the passenger asked, feeling like he was being left out of the loop on something potentially important.

Polk glared a little at Tyler before answering, "The main reason we're moving this guy to the space prison because he was getting into a habit of haveing the people around him end up dead." He finished his explanation with a grim look spreading across his face.

The third passenger couldn't help but glance over at the convict. He was a little surprised to see him starring directly at him with a small smirk on his face. He must have let some of this surprise show, as the small smirk grew into a little grin. His gaze was drawn to Johnny's eyes. They were a strange kind of brown that almost looked like they had red mixed in to make a sort of maroon color.

"Nobodies sure if he actually killed them, but nobody, especially the warden, wanted to take any chances. So now we got orders to take him to the space base and…" As Polk was talking he noticed the lights around him dim, then flicker.

"Hey, whats up with the lights?" Tyler shouted to the pilots in aggravation.

McKinley looked back at him and shouted (after some hesitation) "We may have a problem!"

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**I already have a bad feeling about this one. *sigh* Oh well. Might as well keep going and see how it goes. Luckily I actually DO KNOW how this one is going to end already…so this time it will be all the stuff the the middle (and obviously the beginning, as you can already tell by this mildly disappointing/mediocre/bad first chapter) that will give me trouble. I can only hope to have your support throughout the whole thing. And on that note, review please.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Ch2: Hey. I guess the last chapter wasn't too bad, its just hard starting out with nothing to build off of. But enough of my whining, that's not why you're here. Getting to the MOST important part of any story…THE READERS!**

**Luna264: His name is not the strangest thing about him, as you will see. Trust me. And I appreciate you saying this is a good story already. Let's hope it stays that way.**

**sparklespepper: Thanks for your support. I'm not sure how often I'll be able to update this story. It shouldn't take to long to get a new chapter up (hopefully).**

**LANA 8D: "****these kinda beginnings"? I can't help but wonder what kind of beginning your refering too. But thanks for the vote of confidence. As pertaining to when the Loonatics will "come into" my story you may be somewhat…disappointed, but not too much. I can't say much or it may spoil the story.**

**Anyway, there will be a little swearing in here, so be aware of that. Now lets just get going. **

**EDIT: I added in some stuff that I was going to put into a new chapter, but figured that it would just get redundant, and I tweaked some other parts (mostly the ending) all in the hopes of makeing it better. Did it work (actually, now that I think about it I don't think you can comment on the same chapter twice, so if you have something really want to say to me you can just PM me)? By the way... ****LANA 8D: "****what i meant was when you start a story with Your OC only." Riiiiiight…hold onto that thought for a few more chapters.**

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"What do you mean **problem**?" Polk growled at the two pilots. "I specifically asked if you too were expecting any problems…"

"Well we weren't **expecting **anything like this to happen. There was a…a chance that something would…" Harrison tried to explain himself to the passengers, but trailed off shortly after he started.

"That doesn't matter now." Polk said, trying to maintain a hold on his anger. "Just tell us what the problem is."

"Somethings wrong with the engine." McKinley stated simply. As she said this the lights started to flicker on and off more rapidly.

"That's it? You don't even know what's wrong do you?" Tyler practically shouted. He wasn't as good at keeping a hold on his anger as Polk.

"Alright look," McKinley said, "none of us are even supposeta' to be here ok. This ship's engine has been acting up for weeks and nobody could figure out what was wrong. They said the only people who may have been able to figure it out were on the prison station. They were going to just have them come down planet-side and fix it, but then Mr. St. John started causing trouble and made all the prison officials wet themselves. So then someone had the bright idea to transport the potentially dangerous criminal to the maximum security space prison, which houses the most skilled mechanics in the whole prison system, on the shuttle with a faulty engine."

_So they were trying to 'kill two birds with one stone'_, the third passenger thought as he listened to the pilot's explanation. "This whole assignment was set up last minuet?" he asked no one in particular.

"That would explain why there's only me and you here to guard the prisoner, and why they had to call you in for support." Polk said, indicating to the third passenger. "Normally we would have five or six people for a transfer to a maximum security facility."

"That's all well and good but it doesn't explain what's wrong with the engine or what you're going to do to fix it." Tyler added hotly.

"We can't really fix it in the middle of space." Harrison said as he kept scanning digital readouts of the ships status with his eyes.

"He's right. The most we can do is just try to manage the ship." McKinley said as she tried to regain some of the confidence she had lost with her passengers.

Tyler was not going to make it easy. "And what if you can't '**manage**' it?"

McKinley scowled, "If push comes to shove I'll have to kill the engine completely, activate the emergency distress beacon and wait for someone to pick us up. But I'm not very anxious to let it come to that."

As she spoke the ship began to lurch and rock violently. "The thrusters are getting out of control. They're firing off and shutting down individually." Harrison said as he looked at an image showing him this on the control panel in front of him.

"Damn, Ok you three sit down and buckle up. This is going to be a little rough." McKinley was pleased to hear the sound of buckles being fastened from behind her. _Nice to know they're listening to me._

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"This is unbelievable." Tyler said crossly a few minuets after McKinley had told them to buckle up for the rough ride ahead. "They decide that our lives are worth risking because they're scared of some inmate!" Tyler was practically fuming at this point. "Unbelievable!"

"Settle down Tyler!" Polk shouted back at him. _He's probably just scared, hell; so am I, but showing him that wont help anything. Got to stay calm…at least for his sake_, Polk thought as he looked over at Tyler. They had known each other for long enough for him to be able to see through Tyler's anger. "Just calm down: every thing will be fine." he said with as much certainty as he could muster. He saw Tyler nod slightly and look down into his lap. Polk nodded as well; then looked to his right at the third passenger. "How are you doing?" he asked.

The third passenger gave a weak smile, "This isn't the first time I've been in a dangerous situation." he said. This was true: he did a lot of dangerous things with his team on an almost daily basis; even so he still felt a little nervous. He wasn't afraid of dieing, he managed to survive every hazardous situation without any permanent harm coming to him; it was just hard to overcome that natural instinct to avoid danger. He glanced back over to where Johnny was, and was, once again, surprised by what he saw. Despite the increasingly forceful rocking of ship, he had not moved at all. He continued to lay on his back with his head resting on his arms; staring at the ceiling with no visible apprehension about what was happening what so ever, _he almost looks **amused** in fact_, he thought judjing by the small smirk on his face. _Perhaps he could not hear what McKinley had said and, there for, does not understand the danger we all could be in. No, the shaking would most likely indicate something is wrong. I suppose he must be at peace with everything in his life to so calm. Lucky man._

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"Alright Harrison what's our status?" McKinleyasked as she began the process of getting things under control.

"Like I said, out thrusters are out-of-sync, our internal heat levels are rising rapidly, and our energy output levels are spiking and dipping sporadically;** *1** taking our acceleration rate along for the ride." He said all this in a quick and slightly panicky tone as he saw the flashing warning lights filling his vision.

McKinley herself was feeling a little shaken. _Come on_, she thought, _pull it together McKinley. Got to stay calm. _"Settle down Harrison," she tried to calm her jittery co-pilot, "just take a deep breath and stay with me. I'm going to need you focused." She saw him take the deep breath and then nod to her. "Good, now you open up all the thermal shields and hopefully the vacuum outside will help cool us down. I'm going to scale the throttle back and see if that stabilizes things." Before she had even finished giving out her instructions she was already at work, and Harrison followed suit. They worked diligently for a few tense moments of relative silence (it was becoming difficult to manipulate the controls with the ship's violent movements). _Just ease the throttle back…nice…and…slow,_ McKinley thought as she pulled the leaver that controlled their speed back toward herself; seeing the digital numerals changing as she did so. _50…40…30…20_: she glanced over at another small screen and saw the wavy lines beginning to settle down. "Power and acceleration are leveling out. How are we doing on heat Harrison?" she asked as she looked over to him.

"It's still in the danger area but it stopped rising." he replied with some relief audible in his voice. "I think we did it."

Unfortunately, after he said this McKinley saw warning lights going off again. _What!_, she mentally shouted as she witnessed the power levels and throttle increasing on their own. _30, 40, 50, 70, 90_, and the numbers continued to clime. She sighed heavily in defeat. "That's it. Cut the fuel lines Harrison. We're going to have to go with plan B."

Harrison nodded somberly, then looked for the appropriate switch that would block the flow of fuel to the engine; hopefully shutting it down. He finally found the proper switch and used it. He waited for a moment, but there was no change. He flipped it back and forth but had the same result. "It's not responding! The circuits must be fried!" he said, again the panic growing up in him.

"Son of a bitch! Someone will have to use the manual cut off leaver." McKinley shouted so everyone could hear her now.

"I'll do it!" Harrison said as he began to unbuckle himself from the seat.

"No Harrison! I need you hear to help me with this." McKinley said as she grabbed his arm and made him stop moving.

"I'll do it!" Polk said as he unfastened his own safety belt. "What does it look like?" he asked as he struggled to stay on his feet with the ship jolting him back and forth.

"It's a red and yellow leaver on the corner of the ceiling; above you and to your right." McKinley answered. "Make sure you pull it all the way down toward you." She added this extra bit of information to make sure no mistakes were made.

Polk looked around for a second and saw the leaver. He made his way over to it as quickly as he could and reached up to grab it. He clutched it tightly and pulled it down toward him, but it was stuck. "Come on you..." he growled as he pulled harder on it. Finally it released, but something no one could have predicted happened. As he finished pulling it, a small explosion occurred; sending bits of metal flying out. The passengers in the back then saw Polk's body get thrown to the ground by a particularly hard jolt of the ship.

As soon as Tyler's senses recovered from the explosion and saw Polk fall to the floor, he cried out his name. Quickly unbuckling himself he lunged over to where Polk's body lay. With the lights continuing to fail it was becoming hard to see, so it wasn't until Tyler had turned Polk's body over that he saw a small, jagged hole in the center of his forehead from which blood was leaking out. "Polk…Polk...no...no..." Tyler began repeating this to himself as he held the lifeless body. The third passenger also crouched down next to him. He had intended to offer some assistance, but now it was obvious there was nothing anyone could do for him.

"What's going on back there?" McKinley asked as she couldn't look away from the controls.

"Officer Polk is…dead. There was an explosion and he was killed by a piece of shrapnel," the third passenger answered for Tyler, since he wasn't really capable right now. Once again his gaze was drawn over to Johnny (if only so he wouldn't have to look at the sad and disturbing sight before him). Now he saw him sitting up and looking out at them with an expression of, _sadness? _he thought.

"**Oh fantastic! God damn it**." McKinley cursed.

"I don't know what just happened but that explosion just made all the thrusters light up together. Plus now we're losing fuel at twice the normal rate, and I think we have a hull breach." Harrison said as he saw several new warning lights turn on.

"Those are the least of our worries right now!" McKinley shouted as she looked over to Harrison with an extremely bleak look in her eyes. "If we don't change our course soon…we're going to crash right into the station."

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***1: So this is how I'm going to do my story notes here. I'm trying to use more diverse punctuation in this story. If you notice any mistakes I would like to hear about it.**

**Dramatic wasn't it? I thought so, but it's kind of short. Just bear with me for a while ok. I just hope it wasn't boring for anyone. Anyway I would like to see some new reviews please. So long.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Ch3: Hello. Sorry it has taken such a long time to get a new chapter up. I wanted to work on this more but other stuff kept getting in the way. But it's here now so lets all rejoice.**

**Fusionista: I'm glad you like the story so far. It seems I made an unintentionally likable character in McKinley. I hope I don't disappoint you with the way a use her. And that's it I guess.**

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"But our course is logged into the ships navigation systems already. It would take too much time to change it." Harrison said, almost frantically.

"Yeah, that's why I'm going to have to go to manual control." McKinley replied coolly.

"**Manual control**? At these speeds? You'll break your arms try to steer this thing!" Harrison replied, the concern he was feeling evident in his voice.

"Well if you have any better ideas I'd love to hear them." she said in a strangely calm voice. Not hearing anything else from him she turned back to the passengers. "Alright you two just…" she didn't really know what to say to them. Tyler was obviously still grieving over what had just happened to Polk, but they didn't have time for it. "just get back into your seats and hang on." was all she could really say at the moment. _Now I just have to focus on keeping our asses alive._

The third passenger was about to obey her orders, but he realized that Tyler was still not moving from his place on the floor. "Come on Tyler, we have to get back into our seats." he said in a smooth tone in an effort to get a better response. This tactic did not seem to have any effect unfortunately, as the only response he did get was Tyler shaking his head slowly. _Great_, he thought, _now what? Maybe I should try being more forceful. _"Come on Tyler. We can't afford for you to have an emotional breakdown. You need to get into your seat, for your own safety." he said as he shook his shoulder a bit, but still Tyler refused to budge.

After seeing this, Harrison felt compelled to help the two. So he unfastened himself from his own seat.

McKinley, however, was too preoccupied with the ships controls (which were not cooperating at the moment) to notice this. She was trying to get the ship to switch to manual navigation, but in its damaged state it was proving difficult. **MALFUNCTION: UNABLE TO EXECUTE COMMAND**, the digital readout said as she tried to type in the proper command to disengage the autopilot. "Come on, come on!" she growled as she tried feverishly to get the controls to respond to her commands. She glanced up and saw the prison station was now in sight, a sign that she was rapidly running out of time. She typed in the command again: **MALFUNCTION: UNABLE TO EXECUTE COMMAND**, the screen said again. "Come on you damn piece of JUNK!" she shouted as she slammed he fist down onto the display, cracking it. Once she had done this a new message appeared: **COMMAND ACCEPTED: SWITCHING TO MANUAL CONTROL**. She gave a small sigh of relief, then took hold of the flight controls and began pulling it back, trying to get the ship to rise. The ship was fighting with her however. She glanced over and saw the their speed was still climbing, despite the fact that they had already reached the maximum speed the ship was suppose to be capable of. _No time to worry about that_, she thought as she strained against the controls; beads of sweat began rolling down her forehead from the combination of high heat, exertion, and stress of the situation. Slowly the controls started to respond and the ship gradually rose off of its preset course. She continued to pull with all her might as the station grew closer and closer. Finally the ship reached the area where the station was, and then passed it. McKinley looked out of the dash window tentatively and saw that they had flown over the station, missing it completely. Now she finally sighed with complete relief: even chuckling a little.

She was about to call out to the passengers and her copilot, but she was suddenly becoming aware of an increasing pressure that was being applied on her. _Must be our speed_, she thought as she looked over and watched it clime higher and higher._ How much faster can we possibly go?_ It was at that point that the ships speed leaped up again, pushing the ship to its structural limits. It began hurtling through space at an astonishing speed. It was completely out of control.

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Harrison and the third passenger had been trying to get Tyler to get into a seat but had been having trouble. Tyler seemed to be completely dead to the world and refused to even acknowledge anything that was going on around him.

"Come on Tyler! Just work with us alright?" Harrison pleaded as tried to haul Tyler into a seat bodily, taking hold of one of his arms to do so.

"I know your upset right now, but we have other, more pressing, matters to take care of." the third passenger added as he also tried to pull Tyler by his arm. Tyler was larger than Harrison and the third passenger combined, and he seemed completely unwilling to move on his own. As the two strained they felt the ship beguine to tilt upward slightly, then contiue to rise.

"McKinley must have unlocked the controls!" Harrison said with near glee.

Unfortunately it was at this point that the ships speed spiked severely and sent all the unsecured passengers crashing into the back wall of the ship.

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**And that's the end of chapter three. I realize I may be being a little cryptic with this one, but just bear with me for a few more chapters. I also should apologize for the shortness of most of these early chapter. They should get longer (and better) once we gett deeper into the story. Anyway leave review if please.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Ch4: Hello everyone. I am very happy to tell you all that I have come to a decision, but before I talk about that I have one other quick thing to talk about. **

**I wanted to thank everyone for his or her support during this (admittedly short and relatively insignificant) crisis. To everyone who offered suggestions and reviews in general (i.e. Luna246,Fusionista, Charlie , Letreduslac, ect), I can't thank you enough. That goes for the people who added this story as one of their favorites as well (Luna246 again, Fusionista again, Letreduslac again, and Raining-Stars04). All those people are great, and you know what? Anyone who has read this story is great too. YOU ARE ALL JUST GREAT! *ahem* Sorry about that. I got a little excited there. **

**Anyway, about the story: I decided what I am going to do. I am going to use the idea of Letreduslac, only slightly modified. I am going to keep writing and uploading this story like normal, and then when it's finished I will write and upload the other version. Once both are up I'll probably set up a poll of some kind to see which one people like best. Just be aware that, even though I can't exactly predict when any of that will be done, I can say with some certainty that this whole process will most likely take quite a long time to finish. Just remember that. **

**AND ONE MORE THING! If you are afraid of spoilers then maybe you should (and I can't believe I'm saying this) not read this story right now. You may want to wait until both stories are done, but, like I said, that could take a while. So it's up to you to decide. **

**Right, now that that's all taken care of we can continue with the story.**

**(By the way, this is where things will get really good because this is where Johnny starts to talk!)**

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_Where…what…oh my head_, the third passenger mentally groaned as he felt a familiar acing throughout his body. Even though the throbbing in his head was making it hard think, the previous events slowly began to return to him, answering some of the questions he had. But even with those answers there were still many questions remaining. _I wonder what happened. I must have been knocked unconscious when the ship sped up and threw me into the back wall of the ship, and the others for that matter_, he added once he remembered he hadn't been the only person to be up from their seat. He began to become more aware of his surroundings. Slowly sounds began to register, but only made things even more confusing._ I-I can't still be on the ship_, he thought as he heard something that sounded exactly like grass being rustled by wind and chirping birds nested off in the distance. _But that doesn't make any sense. Where else could I be?_

Soon, as his senses continued to return to him, he realized he was being dragged somewhere. Unfortunately, when he tried to open his eyes to see what was happening he realized that his vision was still too cloudy and blurred to see anything clearly. He also didn't have the strength move on his own yet and he was quickly growing frustrated. _Ok, I _**_really_**_ want to…know…w-what's going… _before he realized it, he had gone unconscious again. When he awoke again he found he was no longer being dragged. He opened his eyes as he propped himself up on his forearms, trying his best to be gentle with himself. Looking around him, he was a little surprised by his surroundings.

He appeared to be laying in a small clearing with tall grass surrounding him. He saw he was under the shade of a tall tree, though what kind of tree it was he wasn't sure. _Well, this doesn't seem right at all_, he couldn't help but think as he gazed around at the natural serenity of his surroundings.

Suddenly the tranquil sounds of nature were interrupted by a harsher, more severe sound; the sound of metal scraping against metal. He turned toward the source of the sound and was greeted with another sight that was almost as strange and confusing as the landscape.

There, leaning against another tree a few feet away, was Johnny Yuma. This was strange because he seemed to have changed since the last time he saw him. Some things were the same, like his short, unkempt, golden blond hair, interesting eye color, and confident smirk. The biggest change was his wardrobe. Instead of the prison jumpsuit he had been wearing he was now sporting a dark gray shirt, dark blue jeans, pale brown suede boots, and a battleship gray leather jacket that strongly resembled the classic G-1 military flight jacket style (complete with sheepskin lining and collar).

He didn't appear to be paying any attention to his environment or surroundings. Instead he seemed to be entirely focused on what he was holding in his hand. After looking closer, the third passenger was able to see it was a large knife, _or a small sword, depending on how you want to look at it._ Indeed it was a fearsome looking weapon. The blade alone looked to be at least eight inches long and with the grip it was probably over a foot long all together. He also saw the source of the sound: Johnny was running the knife across a shorter metal rod, slowly and methodically grinding the pieces of metal against each other. As the third passenger slowly rose to his feet Johnny finally came out of the trance he had been in. He looked over to him, as if sensing someone moving around. He smiled, almost warmly, as he swiftly regarded one his former guards. "Howdy. That was some ride huh." he spoke in a rich, baritone voice.

This wasn't the first thing he had been expecting to hear. "Yeah, it was pretty rough, but what exactly happened? Where are we?" he asked, hoping Johnny might know some of the details he was missing.

"No idea. Well, I guess we crashed here. Were here is is still a mystery to me though." he said, almost pensively. After Johnny said this he pointed out ahead of him and continued. "That's what's left of the shuttle over there." A yard away there was a large amount of churned up dirt leading like a trail to the smoking remains of the shuttle.

"That's unfortunate." the third passenger said wistfully. As he looked over at the wreckage he couldn't help but feel discouraged and disheartened as he began thinking of how this would affect their return home. _Without that ship we'll have to find some other way to get back. But judging by the look of this place we might be hard pressed to find one._

"That it is." Johnny replied. "Though you should feel lucky."

"Lucky? And why would that be?" he asked sarcastically, still thinking about their predicament more than listening to what Johnny had to say.

"Well, just look at yourself. You don't have a scratch on you, even though you cloths don't look as good." Johnny replied as he moved away from the tree and walked a little closer to him.

Upon hearing this comment the third passenger looked down to inspect himself. While it was true that he was uninjured, his clothes were in a sorry state; with a multitude of rips, holes, and burn marks all over his uniform. _Luck had nothing to do with it_, he thought with a little amusement. Then a thought struck him. "Where are the others? The pilots and the other guard?" he asked as he looked back over to Johnny.

His smiled seemed to falter for a second, then shrank into a knowing smirk. "Don't move." he said calmly but sternly.

"What?" the third passenger asked, a little worry and uncertainty seeping into his voice.

"Just hold still…right…there." was all Johnny replied with. Then, suddenly, he threw his knife with great force.

A shrill cry went out as his aim proved deadly accurate.

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**Geez that took a long time to write. Sorry guys, but it was pretty good right?. I had made my decision last Sunday and had planed on uploading the new chapter on the same day…but obviously that did not happen. I just hope it was worth the wait. Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope to see a review from you.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Ch5: Hi. First of all, I uploaded ch4 proper so if you have not read it go do that now.**

**Now that that's taken care of we can move forward.**

**Raining-Stars04: I'm pleased I was able to write a story that can be viewed as "awesome" with only four chapters. Thanks for your review.**

**I also want to apologize for any mistakes in the previous chapter. I was in a bit of a hurry to get it up. **

**But are we all ready for a FIGHT SCENE? …because…well, there is one in this chapter. Sooooo…enjoy.**

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Johnny walked over to where the third passenger had fallen. He shook his head a little, "What a mess." he muttered to himself, then he added more loudly "And you can get up now." He shifted his attention to the…'thing' (for lack of a better term) that he had impaled with his knife. As he watched the little creature wiggle and squirm on the ground he heard the third passenger get up to his feet, grumbling something that sounded vaguely obscene. "Why'd you fall over like that anyway?" he asked.

"WHY? You just threw a knife at my head!" he said indignantly. _The nerve of this guy, _he thought crossly. _Where does he get off acting so casual about almost __**killing **__me?_

"Did not." Johnny replied playfully, but after seeing the less-than-amused glare from the third passenger, he clarified, "I threw my knife at the thing that was going to bite your head **off**." As he spoke he pointed to the small animal on the ground.

He looked down to where Johnny had pointed and saw the creature he was talking about. It was small, maybe twelve or thirteen inches, and had large, overlapping scales that seemed to bristle outward all over the top of its body from its head all the way down its long tail. It might have looked cute if not for the large, sharp claws at the end of its front two feet. Though it may have been more apt to call them arms since it also had two more sets of legs after the first that lacked the claws. Its mouth, too, was something that looked quite fearsome, with two large, fang-like teeth coming up from its jaw. And to cap it all off it was also emitting an intensely foul odor.

As he looked down at the strange little beast the third passenger spoke; "I guess I should thank you then. I just wish you had given me some warning."

"Well, everything turned out fine anyway, so it's no big deal. I couldn't just let my new friend get mauled like that after all." Johnny said in a very casual manner.

The third passenger felt a little uncomfortable with that statement, but before he could comment on it the creature on the ground interrupted his train of thought. It began shrieking and squealing at an ear-splittingly high pitch as it continued to writhe on the ground. He had to press his hands against his ears to try and protect them from the auditory assault.

Johnny seemed to be mildly annoyed by this as well, since his first action was to quickly move closer to the animal and crush its head underneath his boot, effectively silencing it. "Well that was interesting," he said as he bent down to retrieve his knife from the, now deceased, varmint.

"Indeed. I wonder what it was doing that for. Was it crying in pain?" the third passenger asked as he continued to examined the creature.

"I don't think so." Johnny answered as he cleaned his knife with a rag he had gotten out of his pocket. "No, if it was doing that because it was in pain, you would think it would have been doing that right from when I stabbed it." Suddenly, as he paused for a moment in his ponderings, a similar shrieking sound was heard from off in the distance. "If I had to guess, I would say this little guy was calling his friends." After the first, several other shrikes came out of the same general direction. "And from the sound of it, he had a lot of friends."

The third passenger could not help but find it strange how casual Johnny was treating the potentially dangerous situation. "That could be a problem." he said in a much more grim fashion.

"Nah, I'm sure it won't be a problem." Johnny replied as he removed his jacket and hung it on a low branch of one of the trees in the clearing. As the blaring sounds of the approaching animals grew louder he pulled a few things out of one of his coats pockets and threw them to the third passenger. Once he had caught them he realized it was a pistol and a few magazines. "You know how to use one of those?" Johnny asked as he pulled the sleeves of his shirt up: continuing his preparation for the quickly approaching struggle with the fearsome creatures that were drawing closer with each passing moment.

The third passenger looked down at the object in his hand with a little concern. "I have experience using what you might call 'non-lethal' weapons, but I'm not sure if those skills will carry over to a conventional firearm…" he said in a less-than-confident tone, looking down at the gun; carefully loading a magazine into the deadly weapon he held daintily in his hand.

"Do you know which end the bullets come out of?" Johnny asked. He received a small nod from the third passenger, but when he saw he was going to add something else, Johnny asked, "Do you know how to fire it?" When he received another nod he continued, "Then I'm sure you'll be fine." finishing with a, surprisingly reassuring, smile.

Then, all of a sudden, the screeching that had been echoing around them was replaced by a rustling sound and something that resembled a low growl. Along with these new sounds came an almost overpowering stench. A few tense moments passed; the sounds and smells causing the third passenger's nerves to tighten dangerously; threatening to snap at any moment. They both waited expectantly for the creatures to show themselves; the third passenger holding his gun in both hands tightly with eyes darting around quickly; while Johnny stood very still and unconcernedly drummed his fingers on the blade of his knife.

Finally, the creatures broke through the long grass. After the lead animal jumped out several others followed and the two got to look at them. They looked very similar to the one who they had already killed. The most prominent difference was that they were larger; about the same height and length of a medium sized dog. After the lead beast (which was also the biggest and most savage looking) had looked at the two potential meals before it, it gave a high squeal and the entire group surged back into movement.

The third passenger raised his weapon to try and fire at them, but Johnny stopped him before he could. "Don't start just yet," as he spoke the creatures began running in a circle around them, "they're trying to keep us from escaping. Wait until they come at us, then start shooting." Without warning, three of the fiends left the circle and charged toward them. The third passenger began firing at them, but, even though he proved to be quite accurate with his gun, it seemed to be underpowered, as it took several shots to put one of them down. As it closed the distance between its self and Johnny one of them lunged at his legs while the other remaining one jumping up and attacking high. Seeing this, Johnny kicked the lower one with enough force to send it skidding backward. Almost immediately after that he swung his knife and practically cleaved the other animal in half. Seeing that three of their comrades were dead, five of the beasts came at them. This time two split off to attack the third passenger and the other three attacked Johnny.

As the two charged at him, the third passenger began firing once again, but, unfortunately, was also only able to kill one of them just as before. So the second one, having not been riddled full of holes, jumped up and bared its long fangs in anticipation of biting into the third passenger's neck. He managed to avoid this fate, however, by falling backward and letting the beast sail over him while also pumping a few rounds into its soft underbelly.

Johnny ended up having a somewhat rougher time. One of the little monsters tried to bite his legs, but Johnny avoided that by stepping on it. This brief lapse in concentration allowed the second beast to strike at his midsection. It jumped up and dug its long claws into his side. He grit his teeth at the sudden surge of pain. In response to this, Johnny flipped his knife around and plunged it into the beast on his side (being careful not to stab himself as well).

The third beast had silently worked his way around Johnny as he fought with the other animals, seeking to attack him from behind. It slowly crept around to his blindside; crouching down it primed itself for the attack. Launching forward it quickly came within striking distance. Jumping up, claws and teeth ready to sink into the unaware pray before it, it flew through the air and was about to succeed in its sneak attack. Just before it reached Johnny's back, however, a bullet bored it's way through the beast's head.

Feeling something heavy crash into his back, then fall to the ground, Johnny spun around on his heels, only to find a creature at his feet. He looked over and saw that the third passenger had recovered just in time to help him out. Johnny's smirk widened. "Nice shot, friend." he said, even though it was pretty obvious by the look on the third passenger's face that there was little skill involved.

There was no time to celebrate yet, since there were still four of the creatures remaining. The large alpha-male and two others rushed at Johnny while the last beast bolted toward the third passenger.

In response to this the third passenger took aim at the little monster. But, to his dismay, when he pulled the trigger, nothing happened except for a feeble "click" being released. He realized the magazine he had been using was out. He began hastily feeling for the other magazine that he had slipped into the belt of his uniform while still watching the lone beast barreling toward him. After not finding it he was forced to look around on the ground for it. _It must have dropped out of my belt when I was knocked on my back_, he thought, as he grew more and more panicked. Once he looked around the same area he had been knocked over in he saw the magazine lying in the dirt.

Before he could attempt to grab it he was roughly knocked to the ground. He felt the weight of an animal on his back and heard the shrill cries coming from it as it started to claw at his back and he started to panic. He began thrashing on the ground to try and throw the creature off him.

The three beasts barreled toward Johnny; the first two going for his legs and the alpha male not far behind them. He realized he wasn't going to get out of this unscathed. _I guess I'll just have to give out more than what I get_, he thought. As one finally lunged at his left leg he reacted by stepping on it, several loud cracks and crunching noises coming from the creature's body under his boot. This success was quickly followed by the other beast biting into his right leg, causing him to drop to his knees. It was this moment that the alpha male chose to attack. Charging forward with intent to rip out his throat it leapt up at him. Reacting as quickly as he could, Johnny reached out and grabbed the animal by the neck and held it away from himself. As he was forced to focus on the alpha male the creature that had bitten his leg now clawed its way up Johnny's chest, tearing large gashes into his torso as it went.

The third passenger tried to drag himself over to the magazine, but soon found it was too difficult with the monster currently trying to bite his head off. As its jaws snapped just inches away from his face the third passenger shoved the barrel of his gun into the maw of the creature. As it struggled to get the offending object out of its mouth the third passenger felt around with his free hand and came upon a sizeable rock. Gripping it tightly, he picked it up and bashed the animal's head with it, sending it tumbling off him. Once he was out from under the beast he scrambled over to the magazine and snatched it off the ground. Glancing behind him he saw that the animal was quickly recovering and was about to give chase. As his sense of panic began to intensify the third passenger expeditiously shoved the magazine into the gun and pulled the slide back to load in the first round. He raised the gun up in front of him and fired just as the beast came within a few inches of where he was kneeling.

The third passenger sat on the ground, panting heavily from so much exertion. _That was…brutal_, he thought as he tried to catch his breath, but as he rested he heard the sound of a struggle still going on to his left. He looked that way and was startled to find Johnny grappling with the last two beasts. He stood up to go over and help him but he was halted by the scene before him.

He was stunned, watching Johnny rip the animal clinging to his chest with a loud grunt and flung it aside. The third passenger regained enough of his wits to fire a few rounds at the creature before it could recover. He then slowly approached as he watched Johnny stare at the alpha male he held firmly in his grasp, even as it clawed at his arm in a desperate attempt to escape. Gazing on in amazement he heard Johnny release a noise from behind his clenched teeth that was akin to growl from some wild beast. As he growled, his fingers began to tighten around the neck of the creature and soon the flesh beneath began to give way, even as the razor-sharp scales dug into him. As he slowly squeezed the life out of the vermin there seemed to almost be a red haze around him, obscuring the third passenger's vision of Johnny head, but he could still make out the slightest of smiles. Soon, with a loud _crack_, the animal ceased its struggle and fell limp. Johnny realized his grip and it fell to the ground in a heap.

For a moment there was silence, neither Johnny nor the third passenger moving for an undeterminable amount of time. Then Johnny seemed to slump forward slightly, then fell backwards onto his back.

When the third passenger saw this he rushed over with a renewed sense of urgency. As arrived at where Johnny had fallen he kneeled down next to him. "Hey, Johnny are you uh…are you going to be alright?" he asked. It seemed like a stupid question. He knew how the human body worked and Johnny's was in **very** bad shape. The alpha male, for starters, had basically torn his arm, to shreds, but that was the least of his problems. As the other creature had crawled up his chest it had left several lacerations in its path, most of which were bleeding profusely.

Johnny tried to get a look at himself them let his head fall back against the dirt. "No, I don't think this…this will end well." His breathing was labored and his voice was softer than it had been before. "But listen…" he said as he grabbed the third passengers arm with surprising firmness. "…Look, I won't last muck longer but…" he was stopped by a spasm of violent coughing. "…J-just don't…d-don't…" The look on his face showed the enormous pain he was in, and how desperate he was to get his message across.

"What? What is it? What shouldn't I do?" The third passenger tried to encourage the information out of him, but couldn't do anything. He watched as his eyes lost focus and his grip loosened on his arm. As much as Johnny struggled he couldn't get his failing body to cooperate any further. Finally, all the life left Johnny eyes and his hand fell onto the ground. Chest no longer rising or falling, body completely stationary, eyes no longer blinking, mouth no lounger gasping.

He was dead. And the third passenger was alone.

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**Finished! You know, I was kinda depressed by how long it took me to complete this, admittedly mediocre, chapter (like more than three months), but now that it is done, I'm just glad!**

**Still, there are no words to describe this level of failure, and I will do better in the future.**

**So go ahead and tell me how disappointed you all are (that is assuming anyone is even still aware of this stories existence).**


	6. Chapter 6

**Ch6: Hi. I'm not really sure what to say at this point. I feel like you all must be tiered of hearing me (figuratively of course) apologize for not updating as quickly as I should (although I really am sorry about that), so how about I just assume that you understand that and we skip all that, sound good? Good.**

**Luna246 and ****Fusionista****: You both have good reason to expect what you did, I assure you (you'll see what I mean). **

**Hopefully this chapter will not disappoint.**

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_So…what now, _the third passenger thought dimly. The simple questions seeming to echo around in his mind before fading and leaving an unsettling emptiness behind. The fact that no answers came to mind was frightening. Normally he reveled in asking and then answering difficult questions, but this was different. He had no enthusiasm to put toward salving this dilemma, and it was a strange, foreign feeling that he quickly grew to despise. He felt awkward, his, normally, brilliant and logical mind now felt sluggish and unresponsive, as if it had run out of steam and refused to be brought back up to speed. _That's not too unlikely,_ he thought with a small, half-hearted chuckle, _considering what I just went through._

The morning had been a trying ordeal. He was both mentally and physically exhausted in a way he had rarely experienced. It was true his occupation often required that he put all of himself into whatever he was doing, whether it was confronting criminals and convicts of all types or working tirelessly on his own side projects. However, doing those activities usually gave him a satisfied felling of accomplishment, even if he ended up being dead tired afterward. This feeling was something else entirely. It was as if there was some invisible, lead weight on his back that was slowly pushing him into the dirt.

It had been placed there as he watched Johnny die. The experience had been surprisingly emotional for him, he had not expected to start weeping at the death of someone he did not know, and yet it happened. He wept openly and loudly. Once he was able to get control of himself he decided that it was only proper to give the man a proper burial, or at least as close to one as he could provide. Using a piece of scrap metal from the crashed shuttle he dug a grave roughly two and a half feet deep. Then he proceeded to drag Johnny's body over to it (which was more difficult then he had first thought it would be since Johnny turned out to weigh more than he had expected) and then pushed him into it. After that he had noticed it was getting dark out, so he collected some dead branches from around the clearing and some of the dry grass to try and start a fire. These materials now sat in a pile in front of him, as he had failed to get the fire going and had now given up. Instead he just sat against one of the two trees with his knees drawn up to his chest, alone in the twilight with only his thought to keep him company.

There was a soft breeze, and it made him shiver as it blew through the holes in his uniform. But he also shivered as the hopelessness of his situation continued to tighten the knot in his stomach. Desperately looking for something to turn his attention away from his abysmal situation he reached for the object beside him: Johnny's knife. He had silently debated whether or not to bury the object with Johnny out of respect, but he eventually decided it was more practical to keep it with him. _Waste not want not, and besides, 'he won't need it where he is' as the old saying goes. _For some reason he felt a little ashamed at himself after thinking that last part. _He was a strange man, but he seemed to be genuinely friendly toward me despite the fact that I had been one of the guards transporting him to prison. On the other hand he was a convicted terrorist who killed dozens of people on that bridge. _He sat and mulled over these two points for a little bit as he gazed listlessly at the knife in his hand. It was hard to link a man with such a pleasant demeanor with the title of 'convict' or 'murderer'. Soon enough he abandoned that thought process, in favor of something more imperative. _There's nothing thinking about that will accomplish. _His eyes regained focus and started to actually examine the tool before him. He immediately noticed the thickness of the blade and the overall weight of the object. Then he started seeing the more subtle details, like its pristine, mirror like surface that gave the appearance that it had never been used at all. He noted that the blade was made out of a metal he could not readily recognize, which surprised him. Looking down at the handle he saw it had a strange grip as well. The actual grip was well built, as it fit into his hand very comfortably, but the odd thing was that at the top and base of the grip were two hook-like additions. He was able to deduce that these must have acted like hand guards. At the very end of the handle there was a ring, about one inch in diameter, though it's purpose was escaped him. The final thin he saw was something he had actually almost missed. On the blade, toward the lower end there was an inscription that read: _El Diablo_. _That's Spanish I think. I wonder what it means._ Now that he was done inspecting the knife he set it back on the ground and searched for something else to occupy himself with.

And so it was at this point that the third passenger arrived again at the question that vexed him so. His spirits sank quickly like a stone thrown into a murky pool and soon all he could de was rest his head down on his knees and wrap his arms around them. He made the perfect picture of defeat.

Before he could really submit to his fatigue he noticed a flash through his arms and eyelids. Curious as to what could have caused such a bright flash he raised his head up quickly and looked around in the growing darkness. He searched for the source but found nothing had changed in the area immediately around him.

Then he heard a noise coming from somewhere close to him. He looked around again nervously but still could not pinpoint where it was coming from. All of the sudden he heard the sound get louder and he realized it was coming from Johnny's make-shift grave. As soon as he looked over to it he saw something shot up out of the fresh dirt and start wriggling around. The third passenger grabbed for the knife by his side and started to scoot backwards in an effort to put distance between himself and whatever was coming out of the ground. Almost as soon as the first thing burst forth another thing just like it followed and they both seemed to be clawing at the soil below them. There was very little light now so it was very hard to identify what exactly the two things were right away, but a realization quickly came onto the third passenger. _Are those…h-h-hands? No, NO_ _that's not possible_, he thought frantically as something much larger finally burst forth; something moaning with two bright, glowing, red eyes. Slowly the thing turned it's gaze over to the third passenger, it's large frame silhouetted against the setting sun as the red eyes glowed in stark, terrifying contrast.

It opened it's mouth slowly, "AHHHhhhhhhhh Christ! You have any idea how much it sucks having to claw your way out of your own grave? No I don't suppose you do." he said in a familiar tone. He worked his legs out from under the dirt and stepped out of the pit he had been sealed just moments ago. "What's wrong friend? You look like you just saw a ghost of something." he said as he walked over to the third passenger and a wide grin spread across his face. "You know what? I don't think we were ever properly introduced." he said as he stood towering over the frazzled looking guy. He reached out his hand and said, "The names Johnny Yuma. And you are?"

At first he didn't move or say anything, it almost seemed like he wasn't even breathing. Then he slowly reached out a shaky hand and it was grasped Johnny's. Then, in an equally as shaky voice, said, "T-t-tech. Tech E. C-coyote."

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**SURPRISE! AND ANOUTHER SURPRISE RIGHT AFTER IT! I bet nobody saw THAT one coming hehehe.**

**I think we can all agree that this was much better. But feel free to tell me what you actually think instead of just letting me put words into your mouths, yeah?**


	7. Chapter 7

**Ch7: Hello. See, I told you all it would get better (not that you ever really doubted me) after chapter five. I guess fight scenes aren't my strong point. But that just means there's room for improvement, right?**

**Raining-Stars04: You are right. A late post is better than no post at all. I wouldn't say genius, to be fair only the thing with Johnny was meant to be a complete surprise. But thanks for the encouraging words. And thank you for making me your first favorite author.**

**Jylamz: I just want to start by saying I really appreciate the enthusiasm you show towards my stories. It's very encouraging. I'm glad you enjoyed _Monster_ so much. It would seem most people regard it as my finest work so far. I'm glad that I was able to surprise some people with the third passenger's identity, but at the same time it's also nice to see that others noticed the hints I had left. I don't really plan out the dialogue I use in my stories ahead of time, but I will definitely keep that idea in mind.**

**Fusionista: Well, I tried not to make it a _complete _surprise. There are a few subtle hints scattered around in previous chapters. **

**On that same topic I've come to realize that keeping up the mystery of who the third passenger was was ultimately pointless…oh well. I think I'll do away with that in the second version of this story.**

**Without further ado, here is the next chapter.**

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As Johnny continued the firm handshake the red glow in his eyes began to disappear and he pulled Tech to his feet, the large grin still firmly planted on his face. "Well it's nice to meet you Mr. Coyote. I look forward to surviving with you."

"You…don't know who I am?" Tech asked as he looked at Johnny incredulously.

Johnny simply shrugged and said, "Should I?" See how perplexed Tech had become Johnny decided to try and explain himself. "I imagine you're a bit confused right now," he said jovially.

"Confused…is a start..." Tech replied as he waited for his heart rate to return to normal.

"And I suppose you'll want some explanations, am I right?" after seeing Tech nod he continued, "Well then I'm afraid your going to be disappointed, 'cause I don't really know what to tell you." He casually walked over to retrieve his jacket that had remained undisturbed on the low-hanging tree branch he had placed it on. "It's kinda hard to explain. Ya see…I've had these powers for as long as I can remember, but my memory doesn't go back that far. In fact, it stops right at a certain day in 2772…" he let the sentence trail off, casting a glance at Tech.

"The day the meteor stuck." Tech finished for him.

"Actually no. It was a few days after that." he said in a more thoughtful manner than Tech had yet seen from him.

"So what your saying is, you have amnesia?" Tech asked, trying to out a more clinical label on the situation to make himself less uncomfortable.

Johnny seemed amused by this, as evidenced by his quiet chuckling. "Yup, as cliché as it may seem, that's the boat I find myself in." he said as he slung his jacket over his shoulder and leaned against the tree it had been hanging on. He continued as he faced away from Tech, "The first thing I remember is waking up on a beach with my clothes burnt and practically torn to shreds. Obviously I was pretty disoriented, so I started wandering around and eventually stumbled upon a road. Unfortunately I hadn't yet grasped concepts like 'roads' and 'cars', or I guess 'semis' would be more accurate, since I was plowed-over by one almost as soon as I set foot on the asphalt." He then paused for a moment and looked down at the small pile of sticks and grass Tech had tried to make a fire out of. He stared at it for a second, as if contemplating something, then raised his arm out toward it.

Tech watched in confusion, wondering why he had stopped recounting his story so abruptly. He looked to Johnny for clarification, only to see him give another sly smirk in reply. Johnny then slightly indicated that he wanted him to look back at the pile.

Once he had done so, Johnny proceeded to snap his fingers, and, once he had done this simple action, a bright flame burst to life on the pile, effectively making a nice little bonfire.

Tech pushed himself back against the same tree Johnny currently leaned against as he looked at the fire in startled amazement. He looked back at Johnny and saw his shoulders sag a little and lean onto the tree more.

"I thought a good story deserves a good campfire, right?" he said with the slightest tremble in his voice. He seemed to take notice of this and cleared his throat quickly, then continued with his story. "Anyway, like I was saying, I step in front of this big rig and get thrown onto the side walk a few yards back. And people crowd around my bloody, mangled corpse and they're all wondering what just happened, I'm sure, when all of the sudden there's this bright flash of light and, lo and behold, there I am, right as rain! As you can imagine people were a bit surprised by this and they all start swarming me with questions. Now, keep in mind, I've really only been 'alive' for an hour or so, so this is all a bit much for me to take in and all I want to do is get out of there and get my head together. I start looking for some place to go and I see an ally off in the distance. Next thing I know, there I am, twenty or thirty feet away from where I just was." Seeing a hint of disbelief in Tech's eyes, Johnny deiced to emphasize his point with another demonstration. Again he raised his hand in front of him and snapped his fingers, and in that instant he disappeared.

Tech head a sort of _thump_ to his right, and turned just in time to see Johnny sit down rather heavily next to the fire, his eyes once again taking on the red glow, but being very faint. "H-how…did you just…." Tech tried to vocalize his confusion but stopped as Johnny waved it off.

"It's more comfortable over here." he said, now sounding a little out of breath, but still wearing the same, almost cocky, smile as before. "So that's the story of my first day on this planet. But enough about all that, I think we should try and get some sleep."

Tech was in no position to argue about this, and simply nodded in agreement. _Maybe I'll be able to figure all this out after getting some rest_, he thought as he rested his head on the ground and slowly slid his eyes shut.

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**Just a little glimpse into the back-story of Johnny Yuma, but more will come in the future.**

**I hope you all enjoyed that in some way, and I hope to see a review telling me otherwise (or if you just want to agree that would be fine too).**


	8. Chapter 8

**Ch8: Hi. **

**Letreduslac: Yeah, sorry about the length, but I usually try to stop in a place that feels right, rather than trying to lengthen or shorten a chapter to fit into a predetermined space. If only more people had that greedy need to read good writing (or felt the need to tell me about it) like you. Oh well, a guy can dream. **

**jylamz: Responding to your reviews is really the least I can do to show my gratitude. I'm very pleased to hear you liked **_**Casting Shadows**_**. Again, like I said last time, I don't put that much thought into the dialogue for my stories beforehand (although it may be a good idea to try and do that at some point) but this time I can say that I will probably address that. Actually I probably would have over looked something like that had you not mentioned it, so thanks! Therein lies the true value of reviewers, I'd say.**

**I just realized you all probably think I'm ****bipolar or something at this point. What with the way my mood tends to shift all over the place in these author notes…**

**Anyway, here is chapter 8.**

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As Tech lay on his back and slowly came back into consciousness he clung to the faint hope that the events of the previous day had all been a particularly vivid and unpleasant dream. As the sun began to shine in his eyes he gradually sat up and began rubbing the sleep from them. Once he had done so he saw that he was, indeed, still laying in the dirt next to a burnt-out campfire in the middle of the strange clearing. He gave a little sigh and proceeded to stand up and stretch his acing muscles. As he did this he noticed something was 'off' about himself that morning. Inspecting his person he quickly found that he was wearing Johnny's jacket. Before he could begin to puzzle over this he heard someone approach him.

"Nice to see you awake." Johnny said as he walked up behind Tech. Taking notice of how Tech had been looking at his jacket he decided to fill him in. "You looked a little cold last night, what with your uniform being little more than rags by now, and I wasn't really needing it, so I went ahead and gave it to ya."

Tech was a little taken aback by this. "Oh, thank you." was all he could think to say. He looked behind Johnny to see all the creatures they had killed the previous day in a large pile. _Apparently he has been keeping busy_, Tech thought.

This seemed to be enough for Johnny, as he simply smiled and clapped Tech on the shoulder firmly and said, "Don't mention it." He then turned away from Tech and continued talking, "Now, I think we should go and see what sort of things we can salvage from our wrecked ship. I poked around it some yesterday, but, as I'm sure you remember, I was interrupted by **other** things."

Tech followed after him listening and looking at the wreckage at the same time. As they drew closer he decided to ask one of the many questions he still had for Johnny. "So Johnny, where did you get this jacket and those clothes and your knife?"

Johnny just looked over his shoulder and said, "They were my personal effects, you know, all the stuff I had on me when I was arrested."

Tech was a little surprised by how offhandedly Johnny talked about his own arrest. _I would think that something like that would be more of a sore spot. I suppose this man is just full of surprises._ They had both reached the ship's remains now and Johnny started nudging the debris on the ground around while Tech began looking for a way into the ship itself. He soon came upon the area that would have been the rear loading area of the shuttle. Unfortunately the door appeared to have fallen off and was now stuck in the dirt, still blocking the way into the ship. Without much thought Tech started using his powers to lift the obstruction out of his path and move it behind him.

"Well aren't we special." Johnny said suddenly, causing Tech to drop the piece of metal to the ground with a loud _clang. _"Sorry, I just don't remember ever seeing anyone else with any powers." He said with a chuckle.

"Somehow that seems unlikely." Tech said as he walked into the ship; Johnny following behind. "You must not have gotten around very much."

"It's more like I wasn't really aware of the world around me for a while. I was a little preoccupied with trying to figure out who I was, or what I was, to pay much attention to the local news." Johnny replied as his gaze lazily drifted over the interior of the ship, looking for anything interesting.

"That makes more sense." Tech said as he surveyed the ship more carefully than Johnny.

"So your some kind of super hero back home?" Johnny asked, trying to make idle conversation.

"More or less, along with the rest of my team." Tech answered as he made his way to the cockpit.

"So where is the rest of your team then? They didn't think I was worth their time?" Johnny asked as he looked out a gaping hole in the wall of the vehicle.

Tech laughed in spite of himself. "Something like that. Actually it was the prison warden who told us that he only needed one of us. Besides that, Ace, our leader, decided it wouldn't be a good idea to leave the city unprotected, even for a few hours." As he recounted this Tech began to pick apart the dashboard, using his powers to unscrew the bolts and screws, so he could get at the internal wiring and see if there was anything he could use. As he busied himself with this a thought struck him. "Say Johnny, do you think you could just teleport us back home?" he asked as he turned around to look at him.

Johnny stopped and thought for a moment, bringing a hand to his chin and rubbing it. "I suppose, in theory, I could. Though there are a few problems with that." As he spoke he leaned against the wall of the ship, his expression becoming more serious than normal. "First off: I haven't really got that much practice with it, I've never done it with another person, doing that sort of thing, along with that fire trick, tends to really wear me out, not to mention how it turns my stomach inside out, and, to top it all off, I need to have at least a general idea of direction and for it to work properly. But I'd say the biggest problem would have to be that last one." Johnny admitted, some of the confidence he seemed to radiate dissipating as he revealed some of his own shortcomings.

Now it was Tech's turn to stroke his chin in thought. _There must be a way of determining where are home is. _After only a minuet or two, he had an idea.

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After scavenging in and around the ship for a few hours Tech had all the necessary components to put his plan into action…well, almost all the components he needed. He motioned for Johnny to come over to where he was so he could inform him of his plan. "Well, Johnny, there's good news and bad news. The good news is that enough of the communications equipment was left for me to cobble together a sort of receiver that should be able to pick up on the GPS signal that the tower, my base of operations that is, is constantly sending out. Once we have that information hopefully you will be able to take us back."

"And the bad news?" Johnny asked with a surprising lack of humor as he looked up at the dark clouds that had covered the sky shortly after the sun had rose that morning.

Now Tech seemed a bit embarrassed. "I…I don't really know how we can power it." he said with a small grimace. Despite all his searching he had been unable to find anything that would give him the power he would need to run the little machine he had made even for a short time.

Suddenly Johnny didn't seem so gloomy as he had been just moments before. He adorned another grin and said, "Naw, I don't think something like that will be a problem. I'm sure we can figure something out."

_His confidence is encouraging_, Tech thought, _but I'm still not sure what we'll be able to do about this._ As he pondered this problem he too looked up at the dark gray clouds that stretched over the horizon in every direction. _I hope it doesn't rain_, he thought absentmindedly.

Just then there was a loud thunderclap that almost seemed to echo around the empty landscape. Both Johnny and Tech looked around but didn't see any lightning or rain. "I wonder if this place has the same sort of weather that we're used to." Johnny said. Just then, as another thunderclap sounded, something caught his eye. He looked over to his left and saw a small mountain off in the distance that he had not noticed before. As he looked at it a third thunderclap rang out, but this time Johnny saw where the lightning struck. "Hey, Tech, look over at that mountain." he said, pointing to it.

As Tech turned his attention to the mountain he saw several lightning bolts strike the peak. "That mountain must be made of some highly conductive material, but I don't see what that has to do with…" he trailed off as the realization came to him.

Johnny's grin grew wider. "Good to see your catching on." he said as he started walking off.

A startled and confused Tech followed after him. "You can't be thinking what I think your thinking." he said worriedly.

"We need power to run your little gizmo, and if this lightning is anything like what we get back home than it should be nothing but pure power, and we got ourselves a natural lightning rod. So I'd say we got lucky." Johnny replied, trying to hold back a chuckle after seeing Tech's horrified expression.

"But that's **insane**! It will never work!" Tech tried to talk some sense into his companion as they both continued walking along.

"Oh come on, it couldn't hurt to try." Johnny said as he entered the long grass.

"I disagree actually, getting struck by lightning could hurt **very much**." Tech said, growing more and more frustrated.

"I don't see what your worried about. From what I can tell you're essentially immune to damage, and even if I die, well you know how that goes," Johnny replied playfully then turned around suddenly to look back at Tech and continued, "But if your that scared than I'll just go and take care of it myself, and you can stay here and hope no more of this place's local inhabitants show up to say 'hello'." After saying this he turned around once again and continued of his way.

Tech stood still for a moment, trying to decide what the best thing to do in this situation was. _This is not good…this is ridiculous!_ As he saw Johnny walking further and further away he finally began running after him muttering to himself, "I must be **crazy**."

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A few hours after had passed and the clearing was now empty, but only for a short time.

Soon a long, slender creature walked out of the tall grass on its five pairs of legs and began sniffing the air.

She was a magnificent creature, both majestic and deadly. She had been drawn by the scent of death and had tracked it down to this area. She looked around as saw a pile of dead things that she recognized. They were the small creatures that she usually stole prey from or killed one or two of them for herself, but now it seemed that something had killed an entire pack of them. She was disappointed that they were all already dead because this meant there was nothing for her to eat. She was no lowly scavenger after all. She was a predator; the proud and feared queen of her domain.

As she continued to sniff the air she caught the scent of something she didn't readily recognize. But it smelled enough like pray for her tastes. And the thought of some new kind of pray intrigued her.

So she began following the smell back into the long grass, heading toward a mountain in the distance.

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**Lot's a stuff going on now (sorta). I thought it was good, not great, but good enough. Please tell me if you saw anything wrong that I missed though. I'd greatly appreciate it (but I'm sure you wont, you guys and girls are too sweet for that). **


	9. Chapter 9

**Ch9: Hi again.**

**Luna246: I should get you to do a new summery for this story. I'm sure it would be better than anything I can come up with. It seems to be a special talent that not everyone has, but I think you're better at it than me. Glad to hear that you think the story is getting more suspenseful. I try my best to get that sort of thing across but I never can be sure if it's working unless someone tells me if it is or not.**

**jylamz: Tech making something that doesn't work? Parish the thought. Good to hear you are still interested.**

**Letreduslac:** **"minuet"…I hate that word…so very, very much, that word and every homonym in the English language. They are the bane(s?) of my existence. Thanks for bringing it up. Upon rereading the chapter I have to say that there is a lot of random-ish dialogue in it. This was mainly for the sake of exposition. Sorry if you were upset by this.**

**Raining-Stars04: Everything you said just made me think, "Mission Accomplished". That was the exact effect I was going for with Johnny. It's encouraging to hear that I'm reaching somebody in the way I intended. As for the art stuff, I would be happy to oblige, unfortunately I am no artist. This isn't me being modest either. I can't draw anything more complicated than stick figures (and crude ones at that). Sorry: although I would not be against "outsourcing" the task to someone who would actually know what he or she was doing. Like I could see if there are any artists who would not mind working with me to do something like what you want, so I guess that's a possibility if you are really that interested.**

**CrazyInSye: It's been a while hasn't it? Well it's great to hear from you again. As I have stated before, the whole mystery character was pretty superfluous in the grand scheme of things, but I am glad you thought I did it well. Also very nice to hear that you thought the hints were done well too. I will definitely cover more of Johnny's back-story in the near future; so don't worry about that. ALSO thanks for the author alert. **

**I don't have that much to say these days. Maybe I'm just anxious about getting this story done properly.**

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"So…let me make sure I understand this 'plan' of yours…" Tech began to say as he and Johnny continued to wade through the long grass toward their new destination, putting special emphasis on the word "plan". "We are going to travel an indeterminable distance to some mountain off in the distance," He paused for a second.

"Yup." Johnny replied.

"Then once we get to this mountain we find some way to climb all the way to the top,"

"Yeah."

"Then we wait for another lightning storm to start up,"

"Right."

"Then once we've accomplished **all** of that, we simply try to get and get ourselves **struck by lightning**. That is our plan?" Tech finally finished his grim summation of the task ahead of them, desperately hoping that hearing all the details being said out loud would help Johnny understand just how unreasonable his "plan" was.

"Well, if you wanna get technical, we're trying to get your **gadget** struck by lightning, but that's about the long and short of it." Johnny confirmed, every ounce of his resolve still firmly in place. "I'm glad we're on the same page, but feel free to ask anymore questions you might have." he said, knowing it would probably elicit a satisfying reaction from him.

Tech gave a little sigh and continued to plod along behind Johnny in silence. _It would seem there is no way to change his mind on the matter_, he found himself thinking. _There's no point in pursuing the issue any further then…for now. But then what should I pursue then? What __**is **__worth pursuing at this point?_ Both Tech and Johnny remained silent for a time, Johnny seeming to want to focus on blazing a trail forward while Tech was lost in his own thoughts. He quickly came to a conclusion. He still didn't know all that much about this man and, considering he **was** a convicted murderer, it was probably in his best interest to try and find out as much as Johnny was willing to tell.

"So, Johnny, you said the first thing you remember is waking up on a beach, do you remember where this beach was?" Tech asked as he saw that even though they had only been traveling for a relatively short time they already seemed to be entering into a new environment. The long grass was beginning thin out and was being replaced by spars collections of trees.

"The beach at Acmetropolis Bay." Johnny replied plainly, as if this were some trivial piece of information.

But Tech had a deferent reaction. "You woke up on the beach of Acmetropolis Bay…a few days after the meteor crashed? You know that Acmetropolis Bay was were the meteor crashed right?"

"Yeah, I had heard that. Quite a coincidence, wouldn't you say?" Johnny said, obviously trying to evoke a response form Tech.

"Right, a…coincidence." Tech responded without hiding any of the shock and disbelief in his voice. Tech was starting to feel discouraged and was finding it hard to think of ways he could get his questions answered in a more complete and helpful way. _I can't tell if Johnny is purposely being vague and obtuse with me, or if that's just the way he is naturally. I guess I can't actually be sure if he is telling the truth about __**anything**__. Well, obviously he has the powers he claims to have, but as to the rest of his story… . I can't believe how __**complicated**__ this all is! _Tech thought as his feelings shifted from downcast to perturbed quite quickly. _This is the reason I prefer working with technology instead of people. If I don't understand why a computer is acting a certain way I can just take it apart and __**look **__for the problem. And that's not really an option when dealing with the normal populace._ As he was thinking, Tech suddenly became aware of how tired he was. He had not noticed that the terrain had continued to get more rugged and choked up with trees; making it harder to traverse. "Um, Johnny…do you think w-we could…take a short rest?" he asked as he panted heavily.

At first Johnny's expression was hard to identify, but as he said, "Sure. A little rest won't hurt." he still gave off an air of sympathy, even if he did look slightly annoyed. As Tech found a suitable rock to sit on Johnny spoke. "You seem real interested in me, but why don't you tell me about you."

Tech was taken by surprise by this. _Well, I guess it's only natural that he'd want to know more about me considering how much interest I've shown in him. _"I…I'm not sure where I would begin… ." he replied, apprehension clear in his voice.

"Why don't you just tell me about the rest of your team." Johnny suggested.

"Um, alright. There are six of us in all: me, Ace and Lexi Bunny, though they are not related, Slam Tasmanian, Danger Duck, and Rev Runner. Like I said before, Ace is our leader and… ."

Tech began to explain the dynamics of his team to Johnny who listened with a silent intrigue. Soon enough, with only a little coaxing from Johnny, Tech began recalling many of the adventures he and his teammates had gone on. And so as the two began to laugh and for that short time as Tech reminisced about better times he forgot about the dire and desperate situation he found himself in. He was comfortable, and even happy, for that short time.

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**Yeah I realizes that this is a sudden and out-of-place ending for the chapter, but I'm going to be going on a short little trip soon and I wanted to get a new chapter up before I left. I hope it is in some way satisfactory.**


	10. Hasta La Vista

**To Whom It May Concern (which is pretty much everyone reading this):**

**A very solemn and forlorn 'Hello' to you all. The reason I am writing this is to deliver some very unfortunate news concerning my story, **_**Convictions**_**. You see, like I had said, the reason I ended chapter 9 where I did is because I was going to be away from my computer for some time and I thought you all had waited long enough for an update. So I put up the partly finished appetizer and hoped to give you something more substantially satisfying soon. This obviously has not happened and that is because it was a very bad decision to put up an incomplete product. **

**The way I ended chapter 9 completely killed any momentum or flow the story had had previously, and so chapter 10 remains unfinished and, indeed, without a beginning. I cannot, for the life of me, think of a good way to start it. This is coming from a story that has already been giving me quite a lot of trouble. I started this in March and it has taken me five months to get what little I have done. I see this as unacceptable. It should not be taking this long and should not be this hard, but it has and it is.**

**It is for the two aforementioned reasons that I have decided to put this story on hiatus. I start school tomorrow and I just don't think I will have the time or energy that this story requires. Don't worry; this is not a 'good bye', but rather a 'hasta la vista (baby)'. I will return and finish this at some point, just not any time in the foreseeable future.**

**Also, please do not send me messages asking me to keep writing. I have thought long and hard about this (obviously) and I have made my decision. I only hope you all can respect that. And besides, if I read too many of your pleading messages I might just cry.**

**Very Humbly Yours:**

**Outis aka nobody**

**p.s. If it's any consolation I will not be taking a break from writing all together. There just so happens to be a few Sonic The Hedgehog stories I've been wanting to write, so if your at all interested in that then I encourage you to keep a look out for those.**


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